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1.1 National Goals: National Education Goals/National Administration Guidelines

The National Education Goals stress:
• high standards of achievement for all students
• equality of educational opportunity through identifying and removing barriers to achievement
• development of necessary knowledge, understanding and skills
• a balanced English curriculum developing competence in basic literacy
• excellence through clear learning objectives, monitoring student performance against these objectives, and programmes to meet individual need
• identifying and giving appropriate support to those with special needs
• access to nationally recognised qualifications
• increased participation and success by Maori consistent with the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi
• respect for diverse ethnic and cultural heritages and acknowledgement of the unique place of Maori

- from Governing and Managing NZ Schools, Ministry of Education, 1997.

[Cross reference each NEG to the relevant section of your scheme]

The National Administration Guidelines state:

NAG 1
Each Board of Trustees is required to foster student achievement by providing teaching and learning programmes which incorporate the New Zealand curriculum (essential learning areas, essential skills and attitudes and values) as expressed in national curriculum statements.
Each Board, through the principal and staff, is required to:
(i) develop and implement teaching and learning programmes:
(a) to provide all students in years 1 – 10 with opportunities to achieve for success in all the essential learning and skill areas of the New Zealand curriculum;
(b) giving priority to student achievement in literacy and numeracy, especially in years 1 – 4;
(ii) through a range of assessment practices, gather information that is sufficiently comprehensive to enable the progress and achievement of students to be evaluated;
giving priority first to:
(a) student achievement in literacy and numeracy, especially in years 1 – 4;
and then to:
(b) breadth and depth of learning related to the needs, abilities and interests of students, the nature of the school’s curriculum, and the scope of the New Zealand curriculum (as expressed in the National Curriculum Statements);
(iii) on the basis of good quality assessment information, identify students and groups of students;
(a) who are not achieving;
(b) who are at risk of not achieving;
(c) who have special needs; and
(d) aspects of the curriculum which require particular attention;
(iv) develop and implement teaching and learning strategies to address the needs of students and aspects of the curriculum identified in (iii) above;
(v) in consultation with the school’s Maori community, develop and make known to the school’s community policies, plans and targets for improving the achievement of Maori students;
(vi) provide appropriate career education and guidance for all students in year 7 and above, with a particular emphasis on specific career guidance for those students who have been identified by the school as being at risk of leaving school unprepared for the transition to the workplace or further education/training.

NAG 2
Each Board of Trustees with the principal and teaching staff is required to:
(i) develop a strategic plan which documents how they are giving effect to the National Education Guidelines through their policies, plans and programmes, including those for curriculum, assessment and staff professional development;
(ii) maintain an ongoing programme of self-review in relation to the above policies, plans and programmes, including evaluation of information on student achievement;
(iii) report to students and their parents on the achievement of individual students, and to the school’s community on the achievement of students as a whole and of groups (identified through 1 (iii) above) including the achievement of Maori students against the plans and targets referred to in 1 (v) above.

NAG 5
Each Board of Trustees is also required to:
(i) provide a safe physical and emotional environment for students;
(ii) comply in full with any legislation currently in force or that may be developed to ensure the safety of students and employees.

[Cross reference each NAG to the relevant section of your scheme]

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